THE PUBLIC are being given a behind the scenes insight as specialists from the National Portrait Gallery carry out restoration work at a historic home.

The team of conservators will be visiting Beningbrough Hall this week to undertake remedial work on the Kit-cat paintings displayed at the venue.

The set of 43 Kit-cat club portraits were donated entirely to the National Portrait Gallery in 1945 to mark the end of the Second World War and 19 of them have been on display at Beningbrough Hall since 1979.

During Wednesday and Thursday afternoon (March 30), visitors to the National Trust hall can go and see the restoration work as it’s carried out in a setting contemporary to the creation of the paintings.

The portraits depict the group of influential men who were members of the dining club which took its name from mutton pies known as Kit-cats. It began meeting during the 1690s initially as a way to provide networking opportunities, providing promising young authors with dinner and wine in return for first refusal on their work and introduced promising young thinkers and artists to potential patrons in literature and government.

Throughout the week the specialists have been taking down the paintings and unframing them. The paintings are displayed unglazed, as they would have been originally. For this reason the National Portrait Gallery carefully monitors the paintings and their environment and undertakes regular condition checks.

Where necessary, small age cracks will be repaired and debris that could potentially cause damage to the paint or gilt frame will be carefully removed.

The paintings and the frames will be documented with diagrams and photography so that future changes can be monitored.